Project 3

For this project, I had used the preexisting VR room that was provided for this class, and used VRTK 3 for the VR simulator. I had added five human models with all of their own animations, whether they are sitting or standing. For my human model, I put ten objects that I would use in class and made them grabbable with the VR controllers. I also added a proximity sound to play when someone gets close, with the other sound saying a statement. All models have a sound play when you get close to them and the correct colliders. For the 10 total large objects In the room, I went for a Christmas and winter theme. Lastly there are 4 configurable light settings green, red, green and red, and light green and red. All of these can be set by the light switches located at the front of the room.

Screenshots:

Writing Prompt:

When doing this project, the idea of meeting people and interacting with them in a fully synthetic world seems like an ok alternative to real world meeting. In the circumstances that we are in today, with COVID-19, I find this to be one of the great uses of this VR world of the classroom. It serves as a new cooler way to let people not only learn and interact, but it lightens the load of the overall global situation with a pandemic. But the question would be is this a real alternative to use even outside of the pandemic?

First, I would like to bring up the difference impractically of using this to interact with others even at the 1:1 scale suggested. Using models to interact with people is just not as fluid as if you were to talk to them. In the animation world, creators always struggle with life-like models as the closer they get, the more detailed is required of that model. If that detail is not included, we will find the issue of something always being off about them. In VR, we are still in the stages of using cartoonish models for people, that they are not meant to look like real people, just as avatars. Although it still accomplished the goal of having a visual with someone and interacting, it suffers in the realm of it just not looking serious enough. Would you have a court case in a VR world, where the stakes of people's lives are at play, no that would just be ridiculous. This put’s VR in a hard spot between comical and practical depending on the group and situation it needs to be used in. Now that the negatives are out of the way we can start to see the positives of this project.

One overwhelming positive thing about using this environment, is that you are not bound by true reality. What I mean by that is you can make things work/appear where in the real world you would not be able to. For example, think about a class that is about the Amazon rainforest. Well using textbooks, pictures and videos will give the understanding of a subject but imagine being able to see it through your eyes in a 360 view where everything is scaled appropriately, it would be better. Of course going to the rainforest is the best with the smell and feel being unique in that medium, but just having the ability to increase the physical knowledge of something with a multipurpose tool like VR shows great benefit of this interaction with people and objects in a purely synthetic world.

To conclude, using VR can have both benefits and disadvantages in the aspect of interacting with people and being inserted into a synthetic world. After working on this project, I can safely say that this is worth the investment, and the time to learn how to use and when to use it. It will be interesting to see where things go from here.